Abbor-Alz
This page may be a Stub or not include some information. For a full article on the topic with citations, please see ' ' at Greyhawkonline.com. The Abbor-Alz comprise the mountains lying south of the Cairn Hills. The Abbor-Alz descend into a hill range, becoming less steep and undulating as they approach the southerly Bright Desert. Geography The Abbor-Alz hills are rocky, granitic, and generally have poor mineral resources. Farther east, where the Duchy of Urnst still rules them as they pass into the wooded hills of the western Gamboge, there are richer deposits of gems and metals. Because there is little of value in the Abbor-Alz regions ruled by Greyhawk, the formal border with Urnst is not heavily patrolled or teeming with border guards. The Abbor-Alz are infested with many more monsters than the Cairn Hills, notably manticores, wyverns, a few dragons (fortunately, mostly brass and copper dragons), a few leucrotta and lamia, sphinxes, mountain tigers and weretigresses, many ogres and hill giants, and a few trolls to boot. The northernmost reaches of the hills are reasonably safe, since dwarves and gnomes have a number of small settlements there, but farther south, they become much more dangerous. Population General settlement patterns for gnomes and dwarves and their typical psychology are as noted for the Cairn Hills. There are virtually no halflings within the Abbor-Alz, except for a very few on the narrow range of fringe foothills east of the mountains. The large majority of small but profitable gnomish silver and gem mines are also located here. Such mines are small-scale, extended-family affairs, and there may be half a dozen small mines within a couple of miles, each run by one or two families within a single gnomish clan. There are perhaps 500 or so dwarves in the Abbor-Alz hills, and nearly 1,000 mountain dwarves to the north, mostly dwelling in Dumadan. The dwarven communities are secluded and generally unfriendly. For the most part, the dwarves keep very much to themselves, but Dumadan has a character all of its own. The lives of these folk have been little affected by Greyhawk‘s new rulership of the area. The gnomes still dispatch their goods for trade in the Urnst lands because they are much nearer than other markets, and Pontyrel is still the major trading market for ores and gems from the gnomes. Many outlying dwarven and a few gnomish communities have never paid any fealty or taxes to Urnst in the past, and do not do so to Greyhawk now. As yet, Greyhawk has not made any determined efforts to get them to do so. Because much of the Abbor-Alz is unmapped, and because of the uncertainties of the Bright Desert, the Mountaineer Militia here are mostly engaged in surveillance rather than diplomacy or tax collection. The human dwellers in the Abbor-Alz, the hillsmen, are a tough and independent bunch. Banditry is significantly more common as a way of life, and those who engage in it often foray into western Urnst and the lower plains of Greyhawk. The nomadic hillsmen herd mountain goats and keep the llamalike beasts for dairy produce and meat, and a few keep trained hawks used for bringing back rabbits and even small rock lizards, the tails of which are baked with herbs and considered a great delicacy. The hillsmen owe allegiance to no one; there are some 2,500 of them in the area shown the campaign map, most living in groups of 15-30, save for the semi-permanent camp at Marstefel Defences This elite group is based at Storm Keep, so named because the small lake north of the keep has a weather system all its own, lying as it does in a deep narrow valley. The mists and rain can sweep down from the hillsides very unpredictably. The Mountaineer Militia has a force of 86 men The Mountaineers are always on the lookout for anyone living in the Abbor-Alz who might be friendly to Greyhawk, so that a treaty of protection in return for taxes can be established by an agent of the Directors of the Free City. Storm Keep itself is a stronghold that has ben largely repaired from its state as a ruined and abandoned wizard’s keep. The outer walls are now fully repaired, while work continues on internal buildings. Twelve dwarves oversee work on the site. It may not be the case that all the dungeons below it have been fully explored, however! The Mountaineers also use Karistyne Castle as a stopover point for flights north to Fort Gellner Notable Settlements * Dumadan * Felnarix * Karistyne’s Castle * Marstefel * Ogremeet Notable Locations * Echoe Crypt * Carashast’s Caves of Sleep * The Eternal Storm of the Wind Dukes * The Lake of Ebon * Lyzandred’s Tombs * The Spinning Helix of the Archmages * The Star Cairns * Valley of the Lamia